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AZ Unemployment Results for July 2012

By Curt Allan


The U.S Department of Labor has released the state employment statistics for July 2012. The State of Arizona's unemployment rate went up 0.1% in July 2012 to 8.3%. This is the first monthly increase for Arizona in 2012. When compared to June, there are roughly 2,600 more unemployed individuals in Arizona. Additionally, there are roughly 12,000 fewer employed people and about 9,000 fewer individuals in the civilian workforce in AZ in July. When combined, these numbers resulted in the 0.1% increase in Arizona's unemployment rate for the month. AZ's unemployment rate continues to mirror the national average rate of 8.3%.

When compared to 2011 AZ's unemployment rate is still much improved than the July 2011 rate of 9.6%. This big improvement in the rate is apparent when look at the detailed employment statistics. There are almost 41,000 fewer unemployed individuals in Arizona over the past year. There are also roughly 22,000 more people employed in AZ and a decrease of 19,000 in the overall civilian workforce over that time. Together, this caused the major 1.3% decrease in the Arizona unemployment rate over the past year.

Employment statistics are also released for the big industries. When we review these statistics we see that most of Arizona's industries did see employment improvements for the month. Some of these industries included Trade Transportation and Utilities, Information, Construction, Manufacturing, and Financial Activities. A few industries, however, did decrease in July including Professional and Business Services and Government.

The U.S. Department of Labor also publishes employment numbers for many of the bigger cities in Arizona. Unlike the business sector numbers most of the cities experienced increases in their unemployment rates in July. The City of Tucson went from 7.6% to 7.7%. The City of Flagstaff rose from 8.3% in June to to 8.7% in July. Also on the increase was the Lake Havasu City-Kingman Area going from 9.6% to 9.7%. The major metropolitan area of Phoenix was up as well rising from 7.4% to 7.5% in July. The City of Prescott's rate remained flat for July at 8.8%. The City of Yuma's unemployment rate exceeded 30% for the first time in almost a year. Yuma's July 2012 rate was 31.2%, one of the highest in the nation.

Lastly we'll compare AZ's to other states in the Southwest United States. In the region Arizona's July 2012 unemployment rate continues to about average for the area - there are both states with higher and lower rates. States with higher rates were California (10.7%) and Nevada (12.0%). States that enjoy lower rates than AZ are New Mexico (6.6%) and Utah (6.0%).

Later this Summer we'll review the August 2012 employment numbers for Arizona. Remember that previously released employment numbers can be adjusted at a later date.




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